Name: Mixmaster
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Decepticon
Alternate Mode: Cement Mixer
CEMENT MIXER MODE
Height: 3.5cm Length: 7.5cm Width: 2.5cm
A mid grey cement mixer with a silver drum and lilac windows, Mixmaster has grey Decepticon logos on either side of his drum. The colours are a simplification of the colours seen on larger version, without the black on the cab. There are six charcoal wheels - two at the front and four at the back. While the colours are simple there's a lot of detail here including the headlights, grille, a ladder and slide at the back and fuel tanks on the sides of the cabin.
There's not really any play value here - the six wheels roll and that's it. Okay, so he doesn't carry any false wheels like Overload, but the play value is minimal. He does stay together quite well despite how this truck pulls apart for the robot mode however.
A simple but solid vehicle mode, Mixmaster is unspectacular but the paint job does what it has to do, the wheels are turn and the sculpt is good. He's nothing special but this mode is far from an afterthought, which is significant considering how different his robot mode is.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Lift the roof and hood up, split the grille. Split the drum, fold back the rear to reveal the robot head, stand him up on the headlights (feet). Unfold the sides of the drum to form his arms, fold the cabin down as a sort of tail.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 7.5cm Width: 8cm
A mid grey robot with small orange eyes and some silver on his upper arms, Mixmaster has even less colour this time, but his bodyshape is quite distinct so he manages to avoid being boring. The Decepticon logos are on the outsides of his upper arms now, but they're upside down and not really intended for this mode. Mixmaster's colours are a lot simpler than those of the full sized version this time.
While it's a limited robot mode in terms of detail and colour, that they managed to shrink down such a complex unfolding Transformer so effectively itself impressive. The arms are long curved affairs and are the defining feature here while the legs are essentially just the front fenders. The cabin at the back is just kibble, but it does help stabilise poses. From the back you can clearly see Devastator's face (under the hood).
Mixmaster's shoulders, hips and elbows are ball jointed, giving him some poseability and, the cabin on the back can help stabilise him, as mentioned - although he can stand without it in some poses - and that's despite the weight it adds to the back of the toy. He lacks hands but at this scale the long arms would overwhelm them anyway, so while it's a shortcoming, it's a fairly minor one.
A robot mode dominated by an unusual shape - as is the case on the bigger toy - and while it lacks hands, has fairly rudimentary legs and a sparse paint job, the fact that they managed to create such a small toy that could explode from a cement mixer into this makes Mixmaster impressive. The play value is a decent and the poseability is still pretty good in context. Some more paint on the head and chest would have been nice and he really should have had some sort of hands, but manages to wow anyway.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
A fairly dull Legends toy in terms of colours, Mixmaster is a mini work of art as far as engineering goes. What was attempted here is by rights above what you'd expect at this size, but the cement mixer explodes into a fairly convincing mini Mixmaster. The paint job is a little bare and the kibble at the back of the robot mode is a little distracting, but both modes work well. Mixmaster is worthwhile simply because of the execution of such a difficult concept - 8/10
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